Employment Applications: Common Errors, Omissions, and Red Flags
While reviewing a set of about 30 employment applications for one of his clients facing an EEOC allegation of hiring discrimination, George started seeing patterns in the mistakes that the job applicants were making that led to their being disqualified.
Sadly, the disqualifying factors George saw — such as failure to provide all information requested or even to sign and date the application — were often reflective not so much of the applicants’ true unsuitability for the job as of their failure to treat the application form with the necessary care.
This post is a direct result of George’s observations while doing that work, presented with hopes of helping employers and job seekers alike.
Employers Should — and Often Do — Apply Rigid, Unforgiving Criteria When Screening Applications
Because of laws governing the hiring and firing of workers, employers must pay close attention to how they read and act upon job applications.
Hiring one applicant despite an unexplained two-month gap in employment history makes it much harder to defend not hiring another whose application shows an unexplained five-month gap. And if the latter charges discrimination, the employer has a problem.
Is the difference between two and five months significant? What about three months?
Far easier to have a policy of not hiring anyone whose application contains any unexplained gaps — period.
Bottom line: [S]eemingly minor errors, omissions and discrepancies acquire an importance many applicants fail to appreciate — becoming “red flags” and thus automatic reasons for rejection. This is nothing personal — it’s what the company feels is necessary to protect itself. Continue reading about application errors …
Article by Dawn Wolfe and courtesy of George Lenard, the originator of George’s Employment Blawg, has over twenty years of experience in all aspects of labor and employment law, including preventive law as well as litigation. His special interests include employment discrimination, sexual harassment, and noncompetition agreements. He is currently a managing partner with Harris, Dowell, Fisher & Harris, L.C., in St. Louis, Missouri, and lives in the suburb of University City with his wife and family.
